Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.13.41
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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māyā-āśaye
—
on the bed of māyā
Compound: māyā + āśaya (bed, support, also: mental state). The boys and calves sleep on a 'bed' of Brahmā's māyā — an illusion-bed. Gauḍīyas note the double meaning: āśaya is both a place and a state of mind.
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gokule
—
in Gokula
Locative of Gokula — the cowherd village, Vraja. Gauḍīyas treasure this place-name: Gokula is one of the eternal abodes, the earthly manifestation of Goloka Vṛndāvana.
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sa-vatsāḥ
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along with their calves
Compound: sa (with) + vatsa. The original boys are stored with their original calves — Brahmā's theft was complete, but so was Kṛṣṇa's replacement. Gauḍīyas read this as proof that the substituted year had no missing pieces.
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śayānāḥ
—
are sleeping
Present participle of √śī (to lie down, sleep). The original boys are simply asleep. Gauḍīyas note: not annihilated, not transformed — only suspended. Kṛṣṇa's līlā does not violate the eternal individuality of His devotees.
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utthitāḥ
—
have risen
Past participle of ut-√sthā (to rise up). They have not yet risen — Brahmā checks specifically for this. The verb echoes verses 22 ('utthitāḥ' — the mothers rose at the flute-sound) and 23 — Brahmā's universe is unmoved, but Vraja has been wide awake.
For one year Lord Brahmā kept the calves and boys lying down in a cave by his mystic power. Therefore when Brahmā saw Lord Kṛṣṇa still playing with all the cows and calves, he began trying to reason about what was happening. “What is this?” he thought. “Maybe I took those calves and cowherd boys away but now they have been taken from that cave. Is this what has happened? Has Kṛṣṇa brought them back here?” Then, however, Lord Brahmā saw that the calves and boys he had taken were still in the same mystic māyā into which he had put them. Thus he concluded that the calves and cowherd boys now playing with Kṛṣṇa were different from the ones in the cave. He could understand that although the original calves and boys were still in the cave where he had put them, Kṛṣṇa had expanded Himself and so the present demonstration of calves and boys consisted of expansions of Kṛṣṇa. They had the same features, the same mentality and the same intentions, but they were all Kṛṣṇa.
Ail the boys and calves who were in Gokula have been put to sleep on my bed of māyā.
- Where am I trapped in a riddle of my own making because I tried to control something only Kṛṣṇa can?
- What would it take to set down my 'mystic effort' and simply admit confusion?
Like a man who stole an apple, returned to inspect his stash, and found the original apples still there alongside a hundred identical apples on the tree — Brahmā checks his māyā-bed. The original boys still sleep, exactly as he left them. Whatever was in Vraja for a year was something else entirely.
My note
Source: vedabase.io